Summary: The Importance Of Insect Eating

The first advantage in environmental aspect is that insect-eating requires less fodders and

farms in order to cultivate large amount of edible insects. Refer to FAO, it is beyond

expectation that 8 kg feed can convert into 1 kg meat while the insect only need 2 kg feed per

mass. For instance, when people would like to consume same amount of edible insects to

replace animal meat, it is likely to reduce more than half of the land and feed resources. In the

other words, it represents that we can entirely produce large quantity of insect food with

specific land and feed resources provided. As a result, we can supply for the needs of

increasing population. Based on the requirement of resources, it is indeed more beneficial for

human

Therefore, insect-eating diet can let us easily fulfill our nutritional needs.

Apart from the wide variety of nutrients, insects contain high protein content but lower

calories fat content than other meat sources. Insects contain high quality protein which

contains all 9 essential amino acid that can only be obtained from diet. Proteins form

hormones and enzyme, produce vital body constituent and contribute to immune function.

Therefore, protein is vital for our health. However, fat may pose a risk to our health as it can

increase the risk of suffering overweight, cardiovascular disease or even stroke.

From the above table, the house cricket contains 205g protein, 68g fat and 1402g calories.

Comparing with beef and milk, with similar protein content, beef contains tripled fat content

and doubled calories while milk contains 4 times more in fat content and 3.5 times more in

calories. As insects contain less calories and fat content, it is suitable for all age group

This would help the medical

development in the future and in the poverty-stricken countries. Consequently, insect-eating

can improve human living standard.

All these evidences show that insect-eating culture should be introduced into Hong Kong for

three major reasons. First, Hong Kong is suitable for developing the low-cost insect-related

business. Both insect food and insect by-products bring economic incentives to the society

and companies. Second, eating insect is more eco-friendly than consuming animal meat.

Eating insect produces less environmental waste and hence to reduce ecological footprint.

Third, we can stay healthy by eating insect. This is because all essential nutrients for human

can be obtained from insects, and insects can also be used in medical field. In order to make

full use of the benefits of insect-eating culture, the Government could first put resources to

plan and obtain advisory opinion from experts. Besides, “the Government should set up

different regulatory mechanisms to secure the supply source of insects”, said Ms. Karly.

Although many manpower and resources are required to foster a culture, it is worth to

develop a new protein source in long